Filmed on the Maryland side of the island just before the arrival of Hurricane Dorian in September 2019 by Here Then Gone.

RELATED: Assateague Car Tour.

The colt died Friday after suffering for several days with an apple stuck in its esophagus, according to a report by WTKR News of Norfolk, VA.

Approximately 800 horses will be removed from the HMA, starting on Wednesday, according to a BLM news release.  The incident will be open to public observation.

Gather stats and daily reports will be posted to this page, although it was generating an error message at the time this post went live.

RELATED: Swasey Wild Horse Roundup Starts Next Month.

Up next in the Barren Valley Complex is the Sheepshead-Heath Creek HMA, an area set aside for wild horses.  The current population is 949, according to the Final EA for management actions in the Complex.  If no action is taken, per Alternative 5, the poor ranchers would continue to suffer “undue hardship” because they can’t “fully use the forage they are authorized.”

In the original WHB Act, lands where horses were found were to be managed principally but not exclusively for wild horses.  Today, some HMAs are ‘Horse Minimization Areas,’ because they’re managed primarily for livestock.  Is this the case for Sheepshead?

The management plan allows 302 wild horses on 204,500 acres.  The forage demand is 3,624 AUMs per year and the aimed-at stocking rate is 1.5 horses per thousand acres.

The target stocking rate across all HMAs is one wild horse or burro per thousand acres.

Unlike Coyote Lake, reviewed on these pages a few days ago, Sheepshead does not have a fractional stocking rate, so the proportion of forage diverted to privately owned livestock may not be as large as Coyote Lake.

The Sheepshead HMA intersects two grazing allotments.  Table 5 in the EA provides data on allotment size, authorized forage and grazing seasons.  Herd sizes and stocking rates are computed for cow/calf pairs, as their resource requirements are said to be equivalent to those of wild horses.  One AUM will sustain one wild horse or one cow/calf pair for one month.

The total estimated forage for livestock inside the HMA, determined in the same manner as Coyote Lake, is 7,276 AUMs per year.  The total estimated number of cow/calf pairs inside the HMA is 662.  The total allotment acreage falling inside the HMA exceeds the size of the HMA, suggesting that it’s 100% subject to permitted grazing.  The area available to livestock inside the HMA was set to 204,500 acres.

The estimated stocking rate allowed by plan is 662 ÷ 204,500 × 1,000 = 3.2 cow/calf pairs per thousand acres, twice the rate set for horses but a much smaller disparity compared to other HMAs in the ‘Short End of Stick’ (SES) series.

The weighted average grazing season is 11 months (7,276 ÷ 662).

These management indicators are compared in the following charts.

The pie chart tells you the HMA is not managed principally for wild horses, but it’s one of the milder cases of forage misappropriation in the SES series.

The forage allocated to livestock would support an additional 606 wild horses (7,276 ÷ 12), for a new AML of 908 (302 + 606).

The current wild horse population exceeds the capacity limit of HMA (949 > 908), which doesn’t include livestock.

The situation may not be as dire as it sounds because the BLM usually imposes a safety factor on forage consumption, meaning there’s more out there than authorized by plan, and the horses migrate between the HMAs in the Complex as stated in the EA.  But it’s not a pattern that you’d want to maintain.  Next year may bring a drought, or wildfire.

A higher percentage of forage has been diverted to livestock on Coyote Lake, compared to Sheepshead, which is not ideal for free-roaming horses in search of food.  The forage allocation at Sand Springs, the third HMA in the Complex, is not known at this time but will be assessed in the near future.

RELATED: Barren Valley Gather EA Comes and Goes, No News Release.

On Theodore Roosevelt National Park with P. Rutherford.

Where are the results for May and July?  Field work not performed or are the findings being hidden from public view?

The most recent results, from March, were not posted at the Assateague news site, but released via local media.

The census reveals the long-term effects of PZP, which its adherents don’t want you to know.  The fertility control program (Maryland side of the island) was shut off in 2016 but the herd is only now starting to recover.

RELATED: Assateague Herd Declines in Latest Census.

In the report that accompanied yesterday’s spending bill for the Department of the Interior, Environmental Protection Agency and related agencies, the Committee said of the plan submitted by the BLM for effecting the rancher-friendly ‘Path Forward’ that “a well-defined action plan for actually implementing this strategy is still to be presented.”

The Committee also noted the loss of the WHB division chief, program officer, and budget officer, among others, possibly related to BLM’s move to Grand Junction.

RELATED: Review of New WH Population Control Plan Almost Complete?

At Custer State Park with This Adventure Family.

RELATED: Everything You Wanted to Know About Oatman.

Today the House Appropriations Committee approved the Interior-Environment funding bill for FY 2021, including $102.6 million for the WHB program.  Refer to page 11 in the bill report for details.  The program received $101.6 million in FY 2020.

The bill now heads to the full House for a vote, according to a press release by Animal Wellness Action, a lobbying group in Washington, DC.

AWA joined AWHC in urging legislators to “implement PZP birth control instead of cruel helicopter chases,” which is what you’d expect from organizations that have bought into the overpopulation narrative.

“Roundups and holding pens are no longer the only way to address wild horse populations,” according to a press release by American Equine Awareness, suggesting that the device has the “potential to lower Bureau of Land Management spending.”

RELATED: AEA Pushes WH Darting Machine.

The Decision Record for wild horse management actions in the Barren Valley Complex authorized the implementation of Alternative 1, the Proposed Action, as identified in Section 2.0 of the Final EA.  There will be no significant impacts in carrying out the plan, except on the horses.

The management plan for the Coyote Lake-Alvord-Tule Springs HMA allows 390 wild horses on 559,400 acres, for a stocking rate of 0.7 horses per thousand acres.  Recall from the discussion in April that fractional stocking rates may indicate large amounts of forage diverted to privately owned livestock.

The Rule of Four suggests that 4 × 390 = 1,560 wild horses have been denied a spot on the HMA.  The Rule of Five suggests the land should be able to support 5 × 390 = 1,950 wild horses.  Let’s see how these estimates compare to figures determined the hard way.

The management plan allocates 12 × 390 = 4,680 AUMs per year to the horses, per Section 3.2.1 of the EA.  The current population, thought to be around 550 wild horses, requires 6,600 AUMs per year.  The current stocking rate is one wild horse per thousand acres, in line with the target rate across all HMAs (27,000 animals on 27 million acres).

The HMA intersects four grazing allotments.  Table 4 in Section 3.2.2 provides data on allotment size, authorized AUMs and grazing seasons.

The total estimated forage available to livestock inside the HMA is the sum of the forage contributions of each allotment.  For example, 38% of the Alvord allotment lies within the HMA so it contributes 38% of its forage to the HMA, assuming the resource is evenly distributed across the parcel (.38 × 7,355 = 2,795 AUMs per year).  The total estimated forage for livestock across the four allotments is 13,421 AUMs per year.

The allotment acreage inside the HMA is computed the same way.  The total is less than the size of the HMA, suggesting that some of the HMA, about 21%, is not subject to permitted grazing.  The map in Appendix B does not show the allotment boundaries.

Livestock populations and stocking rates are based on cow/calf pairs, as their resource requirements are said to be equivalent to those of wild horses.

The Alvord ranchers would have to place 399 cow/calf pairs inside the HMA to graze off 2,795 AUMs in seven months (2,795 ÷ 7 = 399).  The total estimated number of cow/calf pairs inside the HMA is 2,384, for a weighted average grazing season of 5.6 months.

The stocking rate allowed by plan is therefore 2,384 ÷ 441,841 × 1,000 = 5.4 cow/calf pairs per thousand acres.  The stocking rates on individual allotments range from 4.2 to 12.1 cow/calf pairs per thousand acres.

These management indicators are compared in the following charts.

These are the goals of the Proposed Action, to be achieved by roundups and maintained by “intensive fertility control”—in an area set aside for wild horses.

The forage assigned to livestock would support an additional 1,118 wild horses (13,421 ÷ 12), for a new AML of 1,508 (390 + 1,118).  These figures are lower than those estimated above by the Rule of Four and Rule of Five.  The rules might work best on HMAs that are 100% subject to permitted livestock grazing.

Although the HMA is 40% over AML, the current population is well within the carrying capacity of the land (550 < 1,508).

The problem is public-lands ranching, not wild horse overpopulation.

RELATED: Barren Valley Gather EA Comes and Goes, No News Release.

Cost per night is $2,650, double occupancy, according to an article published today by Forbes.  Keep in mind it’s a travel column, not a wild horse column.

Madeleine Pickens purchased base properties in eastern Nevada, giving her grazing preference to hundreds of thousands of acres of public lands, on which she would place 30,000 wild horses rescued from government pens.

At first the BLM supported the idea but later opposed it.  Refer to this report by KLAS News for some background on the project.

RELATED: Intrigue at Spruce-Pequop HMA.

The Central Oregon Wild Horse Coalition has sued the Crook County Commission for holding a series of meetings in May to comment on proposed changes to the Big Summit Wild Horse Management Plan without giving proper notification of the meetings, according to a brief published this morning by Courthouse News Service.

Commissioners sent a letter to the Forest Service advocating for Alternative 2 in the EA, which would reduce the AML on the WHT, arguing that the other two alternatives would allow a “downward trend … in forage availability,” leading to a “significant reduction or exclusion of wildlife and permitted livestock grazing from the Territory.”

The three-page letter, dated May 14, appears as Exhibit 1 at the end of the court filing.

RELATED: Comments Invited on Changes to Big Summit Management Plan.

Trailcam photos of Virginia Range mustangs at the water tanks.  May and June are the best months for viewing them in the higher elevations.

RELATED: No More Overflowing Tanks.

The daily reports ended July 6, with 148 wild horses removed from their home range.

No deaths were reported.

The number of horses removed was about 18% higher than originally planned.

The number of foals captured on July 3 was not given.  If you deduct that day’s results from the total, foals represented about 22% of the horses captured.

Body condition scores were threes and fours, not what you’d expect for an area that’s overpopulated.

RELATED: Range Creek Roundup Starts Next Week.

The well was drilled three years ago and trenching to get treated water out to the tanks was completed two years ago.  Vegetation inside the caged area, where the horses can’t go, is recovering at about the same rate as the area outside.

The operation started July 4.  Eleven studs and two mares have been captured, along with one foal, as of July 5.  Approximately 300 excess horses will be removed from the HMA over the next 45 to 60 days.

RELATED: No Progress on Jackson Mountains Roundup?

The fill valves hang over the rims of the tanks but the mustangs can flip them out of the water, as seen in this video, wasting a critical resource.

They are now held in place by wood blocks that were attached to the rims with carriage bolts and wing nuts.

In case you did not know, the eleventh commandment on the high desert is “Thou shalt not put thy well to the test.”  You don’t buy land in this area with visions of high-tech irrigation systems and lush green lawns!

With two incidents last week involving wild horses, this film may be of interest.

Not many horses but note the warning sign at 10:40.  An example of the new food lockers for picnic tables appears at 32:22 and, of course, some horse poop at 37:12.

RELATED: Man Rides Assateague Pony, Woman Smacks Assateague Pony.

On the Sand Wash Basin HMA with Mary Ellen Connett.